


Concussed

by someinstant



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-26
Updated: 2011-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someinstant/pseuds/someinstant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The head injuries are beginning to become a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Concussed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [omglawdork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omglawdork/gifts).



The world was rocking drunkenly, and Prince Arthur of Camelot was determined to wait until the earth had regained its balance before he opened his eyes. There was some sort of sharp painful-- _thing_ \-- going on near about his forehead, and there was a stink of burnt flesh and feathers hanging in the air.

Arthur considered rolling onto his side to be sick, but gave it up as a bad job. Too much work. Also, he had a growing suspicion that any rolling-type movements might result in a not inconsiderable amount of pain.

Instead, Arthur lay very very still, breathing slowly through his nose and trying to determine what it was, precisely, that resulted in him being ignominiously rendered unconscious _this_ week.

Wasn't training, obviously-- too muddy and quiet to be the training field. Also, Leon or someone would have carted him off to Gaius by now if it were. It probably wasn't a riding accident, either. He had far too good a seat to fall from his mount, no matter what Morgana liked to imply. And if he _had_ fallen (which he clearly _hadn't_ , thank you very much), all the horses in his father's stable were trained to stop and return to their riders. So: no sounds of a horse, and therefore no riding accident.

Clearly he was too coordinated to have done something as foolish as trip and fall over something; that was more in the line of--

"Sire!" cried a voice somewhere to his left. "Arthur! I think it's dead!"

Right. He should have known. Merlin, feathered bear thing in the woods, conveniently timed falling branch. Really, he should just tell Merlin to start yelling, _Look over there!_ whenever he wanted Arthur to ignore whatever extremely obvious (and very definitely illegal) bit of magic he was about to do. It would certainly be kinder on his head.

There was a rustling, stumbling noise, and then Merlin continued, calling, "It must have trod on our campfire or something, because it just _exploded_ , don't know how it did that--" Merlin's footsteps hesitated, and then started forward at a run.

Arthur, because he enjoyed being a prat sometimes, and also because his head _really hurt_ , did not open his eyes.

"Oh, _bugger_ ," muttered Merlin, skidding to a halt next to him. A finger poked lightly at what Arthur was sure was a very impressive and manly goose egg on his forehead. "Arthur?" he said, sounding more worried than Arthur would have expected. "Come on, _come on_ , wake up. You have no _idea_ how much trouble I'll be in if I've accidentally killed the Crown Prince."

"You know," Arthur said, conversationally, eyes still closed, "in the future, perhaps you could just ask me to-- I don't know, look the other direction."

"What?" said Merlin, confused. Then, belatedly: "You're not dead!"

The problem with not opening one's eyes was that it made it difficult to express one's annoyance through well-timed eye rolls. "Yes, thank you, Merlin," Arthur replied. "Although if you had-- done whatever it was you did that I certainly did not see-- to a slightly larger branch, I might have been."

Merlin cleared his throat. Arthur was fairly certain his ears would be Pendragon red now, if he chose to open his eyes. "I have no idea what you mean," Merlin said, voice thick. "Obviously the wind knocked down the branch. Or an overweight squirrel, or something. Perhaps the blow to your head has rendered you more nonsensical than usual, sire."

Arthur opened his eyes a sliver to glare at his tribulation of a manservant, only to see Merlin grinning down at him uncertainly. "Whatever it was that caused the branch to fall," Merlin said, "I'm sure it didn't mean for you to be hurt."

"I never thought it did," Arthur said, and waited for the world to stop swaying.


End file.
